1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a helmet worn to a user's head when a person rides a motorcycle, and in particular to a shield mounting device used when a shield adapted to protect a front side of a helmet user is assembled to a body of a helmet.
2. Description of the Background Art
In a motorcycle or a race vehicle, a rider and co-rider wear a protection gear such as a helmet for protecting their head from a certain accident.
As shown in FIG. 1, the helmet includes a body B having an opening O in a front side of the same in a structure that a head portion of a user is fully covered, and a front side of a user's face is exposed, and a shield S adapted to protect a user's face exposed through the opening of the body B from wind or a foreign substance and formed of a transparent material and assembled to the body B. In particular, the shield S is assembled to a portion (the hatched portion of FIG. 1) of both sides of the helmet by an assembling apparatus. In the assembling apparatus, the shield S assembled to the body B is rotated up and down, so that the opening O of the body B is opened or closed.
As an example of the conventional shield mounting device, according to the U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,213 (filing date: Nov. 15, 1999, and applicant: Hong Jin Crown Corporation), there is provided a shield connector. In the shield connector of Hong Jin Crown Corporation, a base plate includes a circular guide, and an insertion and guiding portion communicating with the guide and is fixed to a helmet body. A rotation member is rotatably inserted into the guide of the base plate. A connection member is formed in an inner surface of the shield and is inserted into the rotation member through the insertion guiding portion. In addition, a locker is rotatably installed along an outer surface of the guide and is adapted to lock the connection member inserted into the rotation member. The detailed constructions and operations of the shield connector of the Hong Jin Crown Corporation having the above described constructions are well described in the cited references. However, according to the shield assembly apparatus by the Hong Jin Crown corporation, in a state that the rotation member is inserted into the inner side of the guide of the base plate, and the locker is engaged to the outer surface of the guide, the connection member of the shield is slid in the inner direction of the rotation member through the insertion guiding portion of the base plate and is assembled. In the above state, the locker is rotated, and then the connection member is locked for thereby finishing the assembling procedure of the shield. In the conventional art, the assembling procedure is complicated and has inconvenience. Therefore, the productivity of the helmet is decreased. In addition, since the guide, the rotation member, the connection member, and the locker have tight assembling sizes, each assembling operation is easily performed, but it is very difficult to disassemble the assembled parts. Therefore, there are many problems for separating the shield from the helmet for the purpose of cleaning or exchange.